


and we set the sea ablaze

by neo_gotmyback



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Elements, How Do I Tag, Light Angst, Love, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29315121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neo_gotmyback/pseuds/neo_gotmyback
Summary: Ten finds the necklace of a mermaid, and forgets that what comes from the sea must always return to it.
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten
Comments: 15
Kudos: 27
Collections: NCTV Secret Santa 2020





	and we set the sea ablaze

**Author's Note:**

  * For [samarasharazi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/samarasharazi/gifts).



As horribly naive and fanciful as it sounded, Ten had the idea that the ocean was his friend. Not a friend who came to call or laughed at his jokes, not like a person, but a friend in its own way, willing to shoulder his burdens and keep his secrets.

If he walked along the beach far enough from the edge of the village, there was a stone jutting out into the sea, too dangerously slick from the spray of the waves for most to risk climbing up to it.

That was Ten’s haven, his place outside of the restrictions of his home and away from the expectations placed on his shoulders. It was beautiful, and staring out at the water with the ocean’s kiss at his heels, he almost felt like he was as infinite as the sea itself.

To most of the world, he was not infinite. He was barely thought of, to be sure, but when they did, most of the village thought of him as that poor, strange boy, the son of that wild, strange woman who disappeared after he was born, the aimless child who wandered by the ocean and refused to grow up, to settle down into his life in the village, get married.

 _He’ll go the same way as his mother, if his father doesn’t watch him_ , they whispered, and something inside Ten ached at the words, not because they hurt as they were meant to, but because something in him longed to disappear into the mists of the ocean just as his mother had.

Ten watched the waves from his place on the rock, letting the salt air sweep through his hair and the ocean mist leave salty residue on his cheeks.

The water drained back in preparation for another wave, and that was when he spotted it. Something was glistening by the bottom of the rocks, red as blood and reflecting the sunlight onto the dull stone around it. It was almost glowing, and Ten bit his lip, weighing the allure of seeing what had washed up from the ocean like a gift from a friend, versus the danger of the jagged, slick surface of the rocks.

Against the voices of caution and reason that chorused in his brain, he let himself down the side of the rocks, toes and fingers catching in small outcroppings to keep himself from sliding and dashing his skull among the waves.

When he had made his way down to the spot, he reached out with careful fingers, pulling a shining silver necklace, not darkened or tarnished in the water, all set to display a bright, blood red stone that gleamed arrestingly.

He reached a finger out to touch the pendant when something shifted in the air, the scent of the ocean souring. He hesitated. The ocean was full of many things, good and evil in turn. And yet this had seemed like a gift, and the necklace was so alluring.

“Ten!” A voice called from up the beach, breaking him out of his trance. “Come on, the boats are back!”

Ten curled his fist around the necklace, slipping it into his pocket and picking his way back up to the beach where his father would be waiting with the day’s catch. He would decide what to do with the necklace later.

-

The necklace sat heavy in his pocket, and the night air was too cold, and Ten couldn’t sleep. He could hear his father, his tired, weary father, asleep in the bed across the room. When he was younger, just the sound of his father’s deep breathing had been enough to send him to sleep.

Ten stood up on soft bare feet, slipping out the door and letting his memory and the just barely breaking light of dawn to lead him towards the beach.

The water had a different kind of greatness at night, inky black and neverendingly vast. Even the kids here, who’d grown up swimming, had always been taught to never go near the ocean at night. There was too much we didn’t know.

But now, as the sun was spreading its painted colors across the sky and the ocean was reflecting off the growing light, and all was still and vast and wonderful? That was the time Ten loved the most.

Ten stood with his toes in the soft sand, and reached into his pocket for the necklace.

It was warm to touch, and almost glowing in a way that Ten could have sworn was magic. He held it up to the sky, trying to use the limited light to discern what it was about this piece of washed up jewelry that held him in such a thrall.

“No!”

Ten startled, closing his fist around the necklace and whirling around, trying to find the source of the voice. Had some kid from the village followed him down here?

But no, the voice had come from in front of him, across by the water.

Ten turned towards the water, scanning it carefully,

And there, half in the water, clinging to the rocks with slim fingers, white blonde hair and bare shoulders and wide, wide eyes, was a boy, staring back at Ten.

-

The boy was beautiful, almost indescribably so. His eyes seemed to hold the depths of the seas in them, wide and innocent, his skin soft and gait stumbling, as if he was relearning how to walk.

The boy was impossibly endearing, and endlessly captivating, even if he’d clammed up and refused to speak a word since Ten had found his and brought him back to his home.

 _Washed up by the beach, probably from a shipwreck,_ Ten had explained to his father. _Can we take him in for a few days?_

And his father, with something in his gaze like fear and wonder and heartbreak, had nodded mutely, and slipped away, pointedly not looking in the direction of the boy bundled in blankets on Ten’s bed.

Ten sat next to the boy on his bed, who’d been glancing around the room with curiosity.

“I can’t help you unless you talk to me,” Ten said, as the boy turned to stare at him. “I know you can, you said something just before I found you.”

The boy said nothing, watching Ten with wary and questioning eyes.

Ten worried his lip, trying to see what he could do to make the boy feel comfortable. “Look, I’ll go first. “I’m Ten. I’ve lived here my whole life. My father goes out on the boats for fishing, and when he gets back I’ll have to help clean and prepare his catch for the market, so we won’t have that much time without him to talk.”

The boy nodded slightly, so at least it seemed he understood what Ten was saying. He continued, “My mother’s been missing ever since I can remember. People around here say she disappeared into the sea.”

Ten catches the way something flickered in the boy’s expression at those words, but he still didn’t say anything.

He sighed and stood up, patience running low. “Okay. I should start my work anyways. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Taeyong.”

Ten whirled around, eyes landing on the boy whose voice he’d finally heard again, titling and soft.

“Taeyong?” He repeated, the word unfamiliar to him.

“My name. I’m Taeyong.” His accent was unplaceable, floating like song, but Ten understood him just fine.

Ten smiled broad and excited. “Taeyong! Beautiful name.”

Taeyong smiled shyly, and something near Ten’s heart lurched at the sight.

Taeyong opened himself to Ten slowly over the days and weeks that passed.

Ten learned that he was clumsy even when well rested, tripping and stumbling over his own two feel, scrunching his nose in frustration as he found himself once again on the ground, Ten trying to hold back his own giggles at the sight.

Ten learned what food Taeyong liked, that he didn’t like to help clean and prepare fish but loved the taste of the deeper sea catches when they were lucky enough to have them.

Ten learned what Taeyong’s bright smiles looked like, what his fingers laced between his own looked like, what his name sounded like in Taeyong’s beautiful, beautiful voice.

His father didn’t look at them together, like watching them would burn him.

“When is he leaving?” He asked, voice low and devoid of any emotion.

“Baba, I don’t think he even remembers where he’s from, where would he even go?” Ten asked, a slight edge slipping into his voice.

Because Taeyong hadn’t told him anything real, nothing about the assumed shipwreck, about his home or his family. Where would he go, if not with Ten.

His father said nothing, jaw tight. He exhaled, then turned to leave. “Be careful,” he said, voice soft, and Ten detected a note of– something, there. Then he was gone, leaving Ten alone and frustrated.

“He doesn’t like me being here.”

Taeyong’s voice came from behind him and Ten almost jumped. “No, no,” he said hurriedly. “He’s just always been like that.”

At Taeyong’s skeptical look, Ten continued with a sigh. “I think you remind him of my mother.”

The whispers around the village had been the same– that boy, same as his father, falling in love with a creature who’s going to leave him behind some day.

Taeyong’s arms came tentatively around his waist, and Ten felt himself relax into his hold.

It was strange, to feel at home somewhere that wasn’t staring out into the sea, to feel so tightly bound to someone like this. Ten felt something in his soul pull towards Taeyong, like the currents pulling victims out to drown. Beautiful and dangerous, like everyone said.

“Taeyong,” Ten breathed, trueing to face him, their bodies still flush together, their eyes meeting. Taeyong’s eyes were beautiful too, dark and deep, full of secrets and curiosity and love.

They were so close Ten could feel the heat of Taeyong’s exhale on his skin, raising goosebumps in its wake.

When their lips met it was like falling, flying, drowning. He was infinite and nothing, and Taeyong tasted wonderful.

The necklace still in his pocket felt like it was burning holes in his skin. He ignored it.

-

The thing was, Ten was not oblivious, as much as everyone seemed to think he was.

He knew what they said his mother was. He knew how he’d found Taeyong. He knew that Taeyong didn’t speak a word about his past. He knew that necklaces didn’t warm to the touch, didn’t sparkle like talismans.

He knew the sea has its own magic and its own secrets. And its own creatures.

He also loved Taeyong. He loved him more than his life, loved him only more and more over the long months they had stretched into a full year.

They were happy, weren’t they? Those were the words Ten whispered into Taeyong’s skins and kissed into the curve of his neck. They were happy, happy, happy.

Ten could lie to himself so beautifully he almost believed it.

As much as Taeyong tried to hide it, there was no mistaking the weariness in his eyes, behind the joy. There was no ignoring the way his joints ached after long days like they weren’t used to supporting his weight, no matter how much Ten massaged his pain away with deft fingers. There was no ignoring the longing in his eyes as he watched the boats depart every day, like it was taking all his will not to dive in after them.

The necklace was in a box, hidden away, key always in Ten’s pocket. Taeyong knew, he had to know, but he never said anything. Like he was waiting for Ten to make the choice.

“Are you happy?” Ten asked, breathless, fingers running through Taeyong’s hair, watching him in the moonlight.

“Yes,” Taeyong said, and it was the truth and not, and when Ten fell asleep beside him he dreamt of a faceless figure dragging him under the sea, pressing kisses to his face as his lungs filled with water.

And then, suddenly, like the rocks that smash ships to pieces because they drew too close to the lighthouse, it all came crumbling down.

Ten came home to Taeyong on his knees, staring at a box, something deep and desperate in his eyes.

“Taeyong?” Ten said, feeling the fear start building in his veins.

The box was the one he’d hidden, the necklace calling to him even through all the layers of wood.

“I’m happy.” Taeyong said, his eyes bright with tears and desperate with sadness. “Ten, I’m so happy with you.”

And Ten knew he was, because Taeyong didn’t lie. He was happy, as happy as he could possibly be trapped on land where he was bound to the rules of human society.

“Where did you find that?” Ten asked, fighting the urge to gather Taeyong in his arms, to kiss the tears away to make him look as happy as he said he was.

“Your father.”

Of course, of course he had. He’d always said Taeyong was going to leave some day. He’d decided to speed the process along. Ten felt the rage spark, jaw tensing.

But then he looked at Taeyong, and the flames were doused, regret taking their place. His father had been right, in a way. This wasn’t Taeyong’s place, even if he loved Ten enough to ignore it.

“Do you want to go home?” Ten asked, feeling his own tears building in his throat.

Taeyong stood up, shaking his head frantically. “No, no, Tennie I’m happy, I swear I am. I am!”

Ten let the tears spill down his face as he surged forward to kiss Taeyong, deep and with intent.

Ten kissed his goodbyes down the length of Taeyong’s body, into his hair and the hollow of his throat and the veins on his wrists.

And in the moonlight, Ten pressed the key into Taeyong’s palm, and fell asleep one last time with his arms wrapped around him.

In the morning, the box was open, and Taeyong was gone.

-

Ten found himself on the rocks overlooking the sea again.

Somehow, impossibly, his life had returned to something achingly like normal, after Taeyong has gone home.

Ten did everything he’d done before, and the days stretched into months stretched into years and almost no one spoke about how strange little Ten had given his heart to some monster of the sea, just like his father.

Some days, Taeyong felt like a dream, something Ten had made up to make his life have meaning. But other days, he remembers so vividly it hurts.

Today was a remembering day. It looked too much like the morning he’d seen Taeyong for the first time, and Ten ached with it.

_What comes from the sea always returns to it._

Something inside Ten stirred. He was born of the sea. His heart belonged to the sea, his soul and love and loyalty belonged to a creature of the sea.

The ocean had always been his friend, in its own way.

When the villagers will speak about it, they will say it was inevitable. They will comfort a heartbroken father and behind his back whisper that he had been born to leave, that the child had been destined to disappear into ocean mists.

But Ten didn’t think about what they would say.

All he knew was that he was infinite, and endlessly, beautifully in love.

**Author's Note:**

> The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life! Remember to separate fiction from reality folks!
> 
> -
> 
> I hope you enjoyed what I did with the prompt! It's not in my usual style and it's my first time writing taeten so I really hope this interpretation is okay. I feel like it might be disappointing...
> 
> This is based on a fairy tale or myth I read years ago about a man who marries a shapeshifter by hiding her seal skin one day when she's on land so she can't disappear. I cannot for the life of me remember where it was from so if someone does please let me know?


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